These four words are the wholly inadequate sick note offered up by all those who think that knowledge is something exclusively acquired through direct experience, who have such a distorted sense of the lens of their own life that everything which is outside their immediate field of vision falls sharply away into the gloom of total ignorance (they haven't even got enough of a framework to attempt a guess), who regard learning as something that stopped at the end of their learning years, who must be making an effort to ensure that nothing lodges in the windy vacancy of their mind that they haven't made a definite effort to put there, who, most infuriatingly of all, can never quite hide the fact that they are, if anything, quite proud that they don't know because this somehow makes them young and vital. It doesn't.

When I was young, nobody said "it's before my time". You were expected to know lots of things that were before your time. That's what civilisation is. Yes, even with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

For me, "It's before my time" is a polite way of saying that "These people had a big impact on you but honestly, they mean nothing to me". Horrifying, I know, that other people have a different perception of the past than you.

Agreed up to a point David but I wouldn't say that people in general are like that based on a particular example. Obviously this caller isn't really Interested In Music.

If anything I suggest that we British are obsessed by trivia and history; Round Britain Quiz, Call My Bluff,University Challenge etc etc and goodness knows how many pub quiz leagues around the country.

If you really want to be among the genuinely incurious there are continents full of them; peoples to whom the reading of a book for pleasure is quite extraordinary. Nice places to visit and nice people but...well, windy vacancies.

''It's before my time'' has just bought to mind a line from Chris Rock's great stand-up show, Bring The Pain in which he explains why he like likes black people but he hates ni**ers.

As the Crystal Palace supporting contestant on the game you heard I'd just like to say that I simply didn't know. I never said it was before my time, that was the Spurs fan.

I like Neil Young very much and rate "On the Beach" as one of my favourite albums of all time. I simply haven't gone back any further through all his musical avenues and their surnames are as interchangeable to me as Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Ant/Dec.

I bought the Word, miss it, and have lots of vinyl covering many genres but the longer I live the more history there seems to be and I've only got so many hours in the day/week/year. Apologies for disappointing you.

On the bright side I won the game and Palace beat Brighton 3-0 later that afternoon.

Also comparing not knowing some trivia about rock music with knowing about the outcome of the second world war is rather absurd. Most people know about the important stuff from the past but don't give a toss about some album that you happen to think is rather wonderful.

I know about a lot of things that happened before and after I was born in 1974, but knowing which member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was Graham is not one of those things. (Well, I know it wasn't Young.)